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Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart rushes against Arizona State on Saturday. The Ducks defeated the Sun Devils 35-23.

Is Kansas for real?
To the BCS, yes. It has the Jayhawks at No. 4.

But peruse their schedule and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a quality opponent. The Jayhawks got off to a 4-0 start with wins over Central Michigan. Southeastern Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International.

Since then, their best victories have come on the road against Kansas State, Colorado and Texas A&M. Those teams are all right, but none will make pundits swoon. And the 76-39 blasting of Nebraska on Saturday is more a testament to how far the Cornhuskers have fallen rather than how Kansas has arrived.

Kansas still has Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Missouri. Only Missouri is somewhat worrisome, and that game is at Kansas. Then comes the Big 12 title game, which should match Kansas and Oklahoma. That means the Jayhawks’ first real test of the season will come in their final game.

The purpose here is not to denigrate Kansas, but to remind the Jayhawks that if they want to continue to be considered among the nation’s best for years to come, they should mix in an Oregon or Michigan or Boston College or Florida State into their nonconference slate. Because right now, there’s nothing there to get excited about, and the pollsters and computers can only be fooled once.

From the shotgun

• By falling to Cincinnati, 38-33, South Florida has now lost three in a row and is finally playing like a team that just started its program 11 years ago.
• Darren McFadden and Felix Jones rushed for 323 and 163 yards, respectively, in leading Arkansas past South Carolina, 48-36, on Saturday. If they had just gained 22 more rushing yards, they would have equaled Notre Dame’s rushing total for the season (508).
• The frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy – for the 2008 season – is probably Florida’s Tim Tebow, but he can’t make any missteps because Ohio State’s Chris Wells will be breathing down his neck.
• If Rutgers wants to play on the big stage, it will have to do better than following its breakthrough season with a relative stinker. It’s not just that the Scarlet Knights have lost four of their last six, but they were outclassed in their last two, defeats against West Virginia (31-3) and Connecticut (38-19).
• Was it really a big deal for Nick Saban to face his former team? He wasn’t forced out of Baton Rouge, he left LSU on his own to take a job with the Miami Dolphins. Les Miles stepped up from Oklahoma State to a better situation at LSU. I don’t really see the cause for animosity.
• Here’s a switch: Did you know there’s a web site called dontfirealgroh.com, dedicated to bringing the Virginia head coach back in 2008? Since the Cavaliers are 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the ACC Coastal after edging Wake Forest on Saturday, I don’t think that will be a problem.

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